All Forum Posts by: G. Emerson Zollos

I travel quite often for work (6-8 months out of the year). Am I able to rent my home if I purchased it as an owner occupied property? It'd be 1-3 month lease terms depending on my work assignment. I've seen online that theres a "10%" rule where if you spend at least 10% of the calendar year in your house you can claim it as your residence for taxation purposes. Does this apply? Also I've owned the property for less than a year at this point.

@Hannah Brown

The 1% or 1.5 or 2% rule isnt really a thing tbh. . . Even as a general principal it is pretty useless imho. The MLS in Hampton Roads is very competitive, however if you are in the market for a buy and hold its not too hard to find 10-12% ROI, also there are a number of excellent areas for appreciation including bayview, south norfolk, and buckroe beach.

The increase in housing prices skews numbers but it also means there is a huge oppurtunity coming for investors. The gentrification of lower class neighborhoods will likely accelerate as you average buyer can no longer afford the “middle class” ones. This means that the appreciation over the next few years in these neighborhoods will way outpace even the impressive numbers of the past few years

Its a tough market and dont over leverage but there really is significant money to be made

You aren't going to find that on the MLS, however, touch base with local wholesalers. There are deals that I've seen which come close to meeting your criteria. You don't specify an ARV so I'm assuming you arent particularly worried about creating a ton of value through equity up front. Virginia Beach will be harder than Chesapeake to find it in. If you look in the area of Chesapeake as it turns into South Norfolk you may be able to find heavily appreciating areas that are lower middle class with major appreciation potential!

Happy hunting!

Nicely done! I know how competitive the market is in VB right now so kudos on making it happen!

Investment Info:

Townhouse buy & hold investment in Virginia Beach.

Purchase price: $196,000
Cash invested: $50,000

This house was pretty rough when we bought it. 20 years of smoking in it left a film of tar on every single surface. They also had 6 people living in it with only 3 bedrooms (think multiple blow up mattresses tucked into corners). This was the first heavy rehab that I was a part of and it definitely taught me a lot about scheduling and how long it takes to get appliances or granite cut.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Saw a great value add and the price point was perfect for our budget

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

MLS, initially listed at 220, used the inspection and fact that it was more tar than house to haggle down

How did you finance this deal?

Investment loan

How did you add value to the deal?

The project was a full gut. We updated and upgraded literally everything.

What was the outcome?

500/month cash flow and basically no maintenance thus far.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Definitely learned about removing tar. Also we waited way to long to schedule our kitchen remodel. I'm relatively handy, however, I'm not in the granite cutting business. We waited until the last two weeks of the rehab to call our cabinet company and it ended up extending out our deadline by a week. In the future we are going to be getting plans drawn up immediately after demo.

Investment Info:

Townhouse buy & hold investment in Virginia Beach.

Purchase price: $196,000
Cash invested: $50,000

This house was pretty rough when we bought it. 20 years of smoking in it left a film of tar on every single surface. They also had 6 people living in it with only 3 bedrooms (think multiple blow up mattresses tucked into corners). This was the first heavy rehab that I was a part of and it definitely taught me a lot about scheduling and how long it takes to get appliances or granite cut.

The area we bought is very affluent and this was definitely the worst house in a good area. We put a large budget into it, however, it is now on par with any other home in the neighborhood most of which ARV in the low 300s. We ended up refinancing the house and pulling a HELOC to access all the equity remaining in the property.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Saw a great value add and the price point was perfect for our budget

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

MLS, initially listed at 220, used the inspection and fact that it was more tar than house to haggle down

How did you finance this deal?

Investment loan

How did you add value to the deal?

The project was a full gut. We updated and upgraded literally everything.

What was the outcome?

500/month cash flow and basically no maintenance thus far.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Definitely learned about removing tar. Also we waited way to long to schedule our kitchen remodel. I'm relatively handy, however, I'm not in the granite cutting business. We waited until the last two weeks of the rehab to call our cabinet company and it ended up extending out our deadline by a week. In the future we are going to be getting plans drawn up immediately after demo.

Hey everyone,

I have been struggling to figure out how to not over leverage when dealing with 5-10 year loan terms. The FCUs in my area have some solid underwriting practices i.e. lending on appraisal value not sale, easy financing on rehabs, etc. However, the sticking point is that I'm getting his with a 5/20 term/ammortization. We are looking to BRRRR on our properties and are only cashing out at a 60-70% LTV. Furthermore, we have 3 investors each bringing significant funds to the table.

In my mind we are ideal candidates for loans but the 5 year term is killing our growth model. It feels like a 5 year term means we are inevitably at the mercy of a refinance from the bank in 4 years and that amount of risk means we cant really expand aggressively.

Our current portfolio is 1 property in the LLC with 2 properties being moved into the LLC. Our equity stake is north of 300k between the three. My question is fundamentally, what can we do to maximize our desirability as borrowers, and is it possible to push a lending insitution to lend on a 15-20 year term rather than 5-10 given our current portfolio?

Hey everyone, recently purchased my first flip and everything is going relatively smoothly. Im wondering if anyone here knows of a good contractor for installation of cabinets in the Virginia Beach area.

Thanks a ton!

Just gotta say i love this forum. . . the responses are so fast and super helpful. Thanks for the advice, ill definitely coat and paint. . . hopefully i can do without a full ozone treatment. I'll post a bit more if I find any other solid options.

I am in the process of purchasing a rehab that has been smoked in for the past 20 years. What are some of the most effective ways of removing the smell to achieve showroom quality short of tearing out every piece of drywall.

I should note that we are planning to remove all the carpets and flooring and replace them. We are also planning to paint every room.